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Google Keep vs Evernote. Which is a better note-taking app?

For the last 3 years, I have been taking all my notes in Evernote which I first saw as a pre-installed app on my phone. I was interested in the idea of the app and it quickly sparked my interest to use this app for my note-keeping purposes. Another app which I have been using as well is Google Keep.

Keep is newly launched on the market and like Evernote, it has all the updated features, such as allowing you to create audio notes, add voice-to-text dictated notes, add images, memos, create checklists and so on.

I tend to lose my belongings sometimes in public transports or places. It happens to a lot of us and it’s not a big deal. We are human after all. So in case I ever lose my notebook, I take all my notes in these notepad apps which lets me keep a backup of everything on their secured servers.

A lot of you reading this right now have tried using a notepad app once or twice. If you are reading this article simply because you are intrigued by learning about notepad apps, you are in the correct place. In this article, you’ll find a brief comparison of the market’s two most popular note-keeping apps. I hope this article will help you to choose the right app for your needs.

So, here’s the comparison of Google Keep vs Evernote.

Basic Features

With Evernote, users can put documents, images and audio clips separated into one assorted folder on the home screen for quick access. Evernote lets you create separate ‘tags’ for individual notes, which is good for categorizing notes and for quick search later.

With Google Keep, you could either archive your notes or keep them in your home screen as long as you need them. A drawback here is that you cannot organize your notes into categories or tag them separately for extensive searches.

Note Types

Both Evernote and Google Keep allow you to create a text note, an audio note, speech-to-text, photo attached notes etc. They also allow you to add audio notes to text notes.

In Google Keep, checklists are created as an individual note type and in a new line which can be checked or unchecked. Adding a checklist option inside a regular text note is not possible, however, users can add pictures when creating any note types.

In terms of flexibility, Evernote provides many more options than Google Keep. With Evernote, you can:

Create bullet point and numbered lists

Bold, italicize and underline text

Attach any file type to a note

Draw and attach hand drawings

Arrange notes into notebooks

Sort notes by the geographic location in which the notes were taken

Widgets and Quick shortcuts

Both Evernote and Google Keep offer users amazing widgets that are visually beautiful and effective at the same time. It is quick and easy to create new text and audio notes, and add pictures and search features. Users running Android Jelly Bean and later can customize the widgets on Google Keep as they desire.

The Evernote widget allows users to search documents and view recent notes while Google Keep has a separate checklist which can be scrolled through to see which notes are left to be archived.

Text-To-Speech and Voice memos

The speech-to-text dictated experience is similar on both the apps, offering only slight differences. When creating speech-to-text notes in Evernote, it also stores the voice note alongside the text which can be played later from the app. But in Google Keep, only the text note is available and the audio version is not stored on the app (only applicable to Ice cream sandwich version users).

The audio version of the files can be accessed on the web version or desktop apps from Windows and Mac on both Evernote and Google Keep .

Photo Notes

You can create a note based on a photo on both of these apps. However, this is an area where Evernote actually outsmarts Google Keep . Evernote has a smart OCR functionality which helps users take notes directly from a notebook and turn it into a text note inside the app. Evernote’s ‘Page Camera’ is supported by iOS and Android platforms.

However, the browsing interface of Google Keep is better than of Evernote.

Conclusion

Choosing between the note apps is a matter of figuring out your needs. Google’s free Keep application runs faster, offers a simple user interface and provides consistent search functionality across devices, making it great to manage simple note-taking.